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Citizenship

Careers

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Australian Citizenship Act 2007 and the Australian Citizenship
(Transitionals and Consequentials) Act 2007

1 July 2007 - Legislation change

Client summary

Australian Citizenship Act 2007

The Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (the new Act) replaces the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 (the old Act).

The purpose of the new Act is to set out how a person may become an Australian citizen, how citizenship may be evidenced and how a person may cease to be a citizen.

In particular, the new Act:

includes simplified outlines to assist readers to understand the new Act

sets out the circumstances in which people automatically become Australian citizens

sets out the eligibility requirements for the acquisition of Australian citizenship
by descent, adoption, conferral or resumption

changes the residence requirement for most citizenship applicants to four years
lawful residence immediately before making an application

allows the permanent resident spouse or interdependent partner of Australian citizens
to have their residence outside Australia taken to be residence in Australia in
certain circumstances

provides for the acquisition of citizenship by people born in Papua prior to 1975
to an Australian citizen parent born in Australia as currently defined

allows children who were born after a parent ceased being an Australian citizen
upon acquiring the citizenship of another country to become Australian citizens

prohibits the approval of citizenship for people, other than certain stateless
people, who are assessed as being a risk to Australia's security

prohibits the approval of citizenship for certain stateless people who have been
convicted of national security offences or other offences for which a sentence of
imprisonment of at least five years has been imposed

prohibits approval of citizenship by conferral during any period in which there is
pending action that could be taken in respect of the person under a law of the
Commonwealth, a State or Territory, any periods in prison and certain periods
following imprisonment

removes the age limit for former Australian citizens, who renounced their citizenship
to become citizens of another country to avoid suffering significant hardship or
disadvantage, to resume Australian citizenship

provides for the collection, use, storage and destruction of personal identifiers

extends the provisions for revocation of Australian citizenship to include serious
criminal offences committed at any time prior to acquisition of citizenship, and
third party fraud
and

provides the discretion to revoke a child's citizenship if the child's only Australian
citizen responsible parent ceases to be an Australian citizen.

Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and Consequentials) Act 2007

The Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and Consequentials) Act 2007 was
passed by Parliament along with the new Act and makes transitional arrangements and
consequential amendments to various Acts which are necessary for the implementation
of the new Act.

Consequential amendments made by the Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and
Consequentials) Act 2007 include:

substituting references to the old Act with new references to the short title of
the new Act, that is ‘the Australian Citizenship Act 2007’

removing references to ‘Australian protected persons’, an expression
which is not used in the new Act or any other Act or delegated legislation

amending the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 and Higher Education
Funding Act 1988 to update references to the manner in which citizenship
acquisition is amended by the new Act
and

The Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and Consequentials) Act 2007
provides various application and transitional provisions relating to the new Act
including:

deeming that persons who were Australian citizens under the old Act are Australian
citizens under the new Act

expanding the meaning of certain terms used in the new Act

making clear the application of the new Act to the acquisition of citizenship by
birth, descent or conferral, and the revocation of citizenship by conferral

deeming old applications and declarations made under the old Act and which are
undecided immediately before the commencement of the new Act be applications
under the new Act

arrangements for persons who were granted a certificate of citizenship under the
old Act but have not become Australian citizens immediately before the commencement
of the new Act

providing that persons granted permanent residence before the date of commencement
of the new Act need only meet the residential requirements in the old Act if they
apply before 1 July 2010

providing that provisions in the new Act allowing for registration of people adopted
by an Australian citizen in accordance with the Hague Convention, applies to people
adopted before or after the commencement of the new Act

Subdivision AA – Citizenship for persons adopted in
accordance with the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption

Subdivision B – Citizenship by conferral

Subdivision C – Resuming citizenship

Division 3 – Cessation of Australian citizenship

Division 4 – Evidence of Australian citizenship

Division 5 – Personal identifiers

Subdivision A – Obtaining personal identifiers

Subdivision B – Obligations relating to identifying information

Part 3 – Other matters

Schedule 1 – Pledge of commitment as a citizen of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Additional information: Detailed information can be found on the
Citizenship website. See:www.citizenship.gov.au

Related amendments:

The Australian Citizenship Regulations 2007 will commence on 1 July 2007 and prescribe various matters under the new Act. Please see the Notice of Legislative Change relating to the Australian Citizenship Regulations 2007 for further information. See:Australian Citizenship Regulations 2007

Application of the new provisions:

Please refer to the notes relating to the Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and Consequentials) Act 2007 above.

Forms: The following application forms have been updated in accordance with the new Act:

Form 118 Application for Australian citizenship by descent

Form 119 Application for evidence of Australian citizenship

Form 124 Application for conferral of Australian citizenship

Form 128 Application for renunciation of Australian citizenship

Form 132 Application to resume Australian citizenship

Form 1195 Proof of Identity for applications made online for conferral
of Australian citizenship

A new Form 1272 Application for Australian citizenship for children adopted
under full and permanent Hague Convention arrangements has been developed to
support the new provisions in the Act.

The information Form 1027i How to apply for conferral of Australian citizenship
has also been updated.

The following Forms have been withdrawn:

Form 975i Australian citizenship – citizenship by birth in
Australia

Form 1037 Declaration of a New Zealand citizen parent
of an Australian born child

Form 1014i Australian citizenship – British and Maltese former child migrants

Form 1063i Becoming a citizen – what you should know

Form 1113i Deprivation of Australian citizenship

Form 1114i Australian citizens who acquired another citizenship prior to 4 April 2002

Form 1184 Application for an evidentiary certificate

Form 1185 Evidentiary certificate

Instructions:

The Australian Citizenship Instructions (ACIs) have been rewritten to support the new Act. The ACIs will also continue to be available on Legendcom. Parts of the ACIs will be publicly available on the Citizenship website.See:www.citizenship.gov.au.

Effect on delegations:

All the existing delegations and authorisations under the old Act and old regulations have been repealed. New delegations and authorisations, that are consistent with those under the old Act, have been made.

Effect on systems: Departmental systems have been updated to support the new Act.